Sweet Taste Without Blood Sugar Spikes

If you have diabetes, you know how important it is to carefully monitor your food choices to avoid unwanted spikes in blood glucose levels.

This is especially true when it comes to sweeteners. Let’s take a look at a few sugar substitutes and their benefits.

By far, my favorite sweeteners are the natural ones. Topping the list is stevia. This herb has been used for more than 1,500 years in South America and continues to boast worldwide popularity. It’s calorie-free and does not affect blood sugar levels. Just a few drops of a liquid concentrate or a dusting of powdered stevia is all you need to lend sweetness to any dish.

Running a close second is xylitol. This sweetener looks and tastes like sugar, making it ideal for baking. Better yet, it’s good for your teeth: Xylitol actually reduces cavity and plaque formation, a dental claim approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Although xylitol is not calorie-free, it is metabolized much more slowly than regular sugar and has an extremely low glycemic index. The only reported side effect is gastrointestinal distress when large amounts are ingested.

Third on my list is sucralose (Splenda). This calorie-free “artificial” sweetener is made from sugar, derived by bonding three chlorine molecules to each sugar molecule. (If that sounds scary, just remember that table salt is simply chlorinated sodium.) As a result, your body cannot break it down, so it passes through unabsorbed and does not raise blood sugar or calories.

Sucralose has been under the microscope ever since its introduction to the American market in 1998. The typical knee-jerk reaction of alternative docs is to instantly reject anything that isn’t all-natural. I, too, held out on this sweetener until I reviewed all of the research and concluded that it's probably OK. If you are going to use an “artificial” sweetener, this should be it. However, I recommend that you only use it on occasion.

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